4281. 'The hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with him' means that in the descendants of Jacob that conjunction had been thoroughly damaged and the two loves pulled apart. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'wrestling' in this sense as being pulled apart and so suffering damage. It is evident from what has been stated above in 4280 that 'the hollow of the thigh' means a joining together; and that 'Jacob' in the Word means not only Jacob but also all his descendants is clear from very many places, such as Numbers 23:7, 10, 21, 23; 24:5, 17, 19; Deuteronomy 33:10; Isaiah 40:27; 43:1, 22; 44:1-2, 21; 48:12; 59:20; Jeremiah 10:16, 25; 30:7, 10, 18; 31:7, 11; 46:27-28; Hosea 10:11; Amos 7:2; Micah 2:12; 3:8; Psalms 14:7; 24:6; 59:13; 78:5; 99:4; and in other places.

[2] Jacob and his descendants were by nature such that with them celestial and spiritual love could not be joined to natural good, that is, the internal or spiritual man could not be joined to the external or natural man. This is evident from the details told in the Word concerning that nation. For they neither knew nor wished to know what the internal or spiritual man was, and therefore that matter was not revealed to them. In fact it was their belief that nothing existed with man apart from the external and natural. Nor in all their worship did they have anything else in mind, so that Divine worship with them was wholly idolatrous; for once internal worship is separated from external, it is nothing but idolatrous. The Church which was established among them was not in fact a Church but only a representative of the Church, for which reason that Church is called a representative Church. For it was possible for a representative of the Church to exist among such people, see 1361, 3670, 4208.

[3] Indeed in representations no attention is paid to the person who represents, only to the thing represented by him. Consequently not only persons represented Divine, celestial, or spiritual things, but also inanimate objects, such as Aaron's garments, the ark, the altar, the oxen and sheep which used to be sacrificed, the lampstand with its lamps, the bread of the presence on the table of gold, the oil with which they were anointed, the frankincense, and other objects like these. This was why their kings, bad ones no less than the good, represented the Lord's kingship, and why their high priests, bad ones no less than the good, represented the things that belong to the Lord's Divine priesthood, when they performed their own function in external form according to the prescribed rules and commands. In order therefore that among them a representative of the Church might come into existence they were provided through plainly visible revelation with such prescribed rules and such laws as would be entirely representative. Therefore as long as they kept to them and strictly complied with them, those people were able to play a representative role. But when they deviated from them into the prescribed rules and laws of other nations, and in particular to the worship of another god, they deprived themselves of their ability to play that representative role. For this reason they were coerced by external means - which were captivities, calamities, threats, and miracles - into obeying laws and prescribed rules that were truly representative, not by internal means, as those people are whose external worship has internal within it. These are the considerations that are meant in the internal historical sense by the words 'the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint', which sense has regard to Jacob and his descendants.

10040. Since the flesh of the young bull together with its skin and dung was burned with fire outside the camp, it becomes clear that the good of love was not meant by its 'flesh' but the evil of [self] love, as accords with the things stated above in 10035 regarding its 'flesh', and in 10038 just above regarding 'the camp'. But the reason why they were allowed to eat the flesh of the sacrifice, as becomes clear from places which come further on, was that in its worship that nation was interested in the outward performance but not in anything internal, see the places referred to in 9320(end), 9380. And an outward performance devoid of anything internal is not at all holy because then it is something done merely by the body and spoken by the mouth, and the heart and soul are not in it. Nevertheless the outward performance devoid of anything internal was called holy because it represented holy and internal things, these being everything that belongs to love and faith received from the Lord and offered back to Him. Since that nation was by nature such they were not permitted to eat blood and fat, because 'blood' meant Divine Truth which composes faith, while 'fat' meant Divine Good which constitutes love, both of which are received from the Lord, see above in 10033. But they were permitted to eat the flesh of a sacrifice because this flesh meant the human proprium or selfhood, 10035; and the proprium of that nation was such that they worshipped the outward forms as being holy but made nothing whatever of their inward substance. And that worship - apart from the representative aspect of it, which was holy - was idolatrous, see 4281, 4311. Furthermore that flesh, as a representative sign, had no other meaning, when its blood represented Divine Truth and its fat Divine Good, 10033; for then that flesh represented something which was devoid of life and soul, as the outward devoid of the inward is, which is referred to as being dead and which is in keeping with the following words in Moses,

You shall not eat the blood, because the blood is the soul; and you shall not eat the soul with the flesh. Deuteronomy 12:23.

[2] The worship of the nation of the catholic religion, as it is called ¹ , is almost the same; that is to say, its worship is outward, devoid of anything inward. The common people are prevented from knowing the inner truths of the Word, because they are forbidden to read it, for which reason also it has come about in the Lord's Divine Providence that in the Holy Supper the common people are given the bread or flesh, but not the wine or blood. And yet blood is that which gives life to flesh, even as wine gives it to bread. For just as the bread without the wine provides no nourishment to the body, neither therefore does the good of love, meant by the bread and the flesh, without the truth of faith, meant by the wine and the blood, provide any nourishment to the soul. In the Lord's Divine Providence it has also come about there that the priest should drink the wine, because by this is meant nourishing the soul by means of Divine Truth devoid of the good of love, which is something outwardly holy devoid of anything inwardly so. They have no knowledge that this has happened in the Lord's Divine Providence because they venerate outward things in an idolatrous manner and so have no idea about inward things. If it had been otherwise, then not unlike the Jews they would have profaned holy things. That drinking of the wine by the priest alone is also a sign that knowledge of Divine Truth resides with priests alone and not with the common people, except so far as they are willing to give them it. Regarding the Holy Supper, that the bread and flesh in it are the Divine Good of the Lord's Divine Love towards the human race, and people's love offered back to the Lord, and that the blood and wine are the Divine Truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Good, and so the truth of faith received from the Lord and offered back to Him, see 3464, 3813, 4211, 4217, 4735, 4976, 6135, 6377, 6789, 7850, 9127.

As regards when it was that the flesh of sacrifices should be taken outside the camp to be burned with fire, see Leviticus 4:11-12, 21; and when it was, and by whom, that it should be eaten, Leviticus 6:26-30; 7:6, 15-19; 19:5-6; Deuteronomy 12:7, 17-18, 27; 27:6-7.

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